Call for collaboration across all sectors to 'stretch' levy for R&D

21 January 2011,
by Gemma Mackenzie

A shake-up of Horticultural Development Company (HDC) research projects, including collaboration with projects in other sectors, has been proposed.

At the Contact 2011 nursery stock conference in Birmingham earlier this
month, HDC technical manager for ornamentals Jason Pole said there
needed to be fewer, more focused research projects in the future and
more input into projects carried out by other Agriculture & Horticulture
Development Board bodies.

He said: "We have the smallest pot of money but by far the largest
number of crops to cater for - there are thousands of crops in
horticulture - and that's one of the challenges we have to face.

"Hardy nursery stock makes up about 10 per cent of all HDC projects and
since the last HTA Contact conference in 2009, the HDC has finished - or
has ongoing - 50 hardy nursery stock projects. But this causes numerous
issues because it's extremely difficult to maintain all these
projects."

He proposed a change to the system that would result in fewer but
better-focused projects based on growers' priorities and needs.

"The only way we can secure the future is by combining our money way up
the line through more strategic commissioning. We have to ask the
industry what the priorities are," Pole told the HTA-run event.

"For every project that we consider we probably reject three more and we
don't have time to focus - the idea of having fewer projects is to
enable the panel more academic input into their work."

He said the levy body must interact more with foreign counterparts to
benefit from the work they are undertaking in the sector: "We need to go
and speak to other organisations and see how we can capitalise on what
they are doing."

Horticultural consultant and HDC board member John Adlam backed Pole's
proposals and praised the importance of HDC research work.

"I'm yet to see a nursery anywhere in the UK that has not benefited from
HDC research and is benefiting from its work. It's possible to stretch
the levy that you pay and get more for it," he suggested.

"There are more than 300 HDC projects that have implications for the
hardy nursery stock sector, but we need to look at collaborating with
other sectors - for example, putting a hardy nursery stock plant into a
strawberry project.

"All it needs on our part is a little bit of courage. The levy is there
to enable us to make more profit and increase our turnover, so take up
some courage and use some of these projects."

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